Least Expensive City

Kuala Lumpur is the least expensive city in the world for Western tourists.
A survey of 71 cities worldwide by Swiss banking giant UBS found that Malaysia's capital has the most competitive prices when it comes to food, electronic goods, clothes, public transport, hotel rates and entertainment.

* A five-star hotel room in Kuala Lumpur costs an average US$150 (RM551) compared to with US$450 (RM1,647) for a similar room in New York. The most expensive is Tokyo, where the rate is US$510 (RM1,866).
* For a room in a two- or three-star hotel, the rate in Kuala Lumpur is about US$50 (RM183), compared with US$250 (RM915) in New York.
* It found that one only has to pay US$260 (RM951) for the package in Kuala Lumpur compared with US$920 (RM3,367) in New York. The most expensive city in this category is London where the cost is US$1,180 (RM4,318).
* Taxi fares in Kuala Lumpur are also one of the cheapest in the world at US$1.60 (RM5.88) for a 5km trip within the city. A similar trip in New York costs US$11.60 (RM42).
* Food prices in Kuala Lumpur are considerably lower than in other cities, with a three-course meal in a good restaurant costing US$12 (RM44) for one person. (Other sources: City Mayors: Economics)
Tags: UBS, Kuala Lumpur, Travel, Tourist, Hotel, Restaurant, Least Expensive, City Mayors, Economics

Parents' Headache .......

A boss wondered why one of his most valued employees had not phoned in sick one day. Having an urgent problem with one of the main computers, he dialed the employee's' home phone number and was greeted with a child's whisper.

Hello? Is your daddy home?" he asked.
Yes," whispered the small voice.
May I talk with him?"
The child whispered, "No."

Surprised and wanting to talk with an adult, the boss asked, "Is your Mommy there?"
"Yes."
"May I talk with her?"
Again the small voice whispered, "No."

Hoping there was somebody with whom he could leave a message, the boss asked, "Is anybody else there?"
"Yes," whispered the child, "a policeman."

Wondering what a cop would be doing at his employee's home, the boss asked,
"May I speak with the policeman?"
"No, he's busy", whispered the child.
"Busy doing what?"
"Talking to Mommy and Daddy and the Fireman," came the whispered answer.

Growing more worried as he heard what sounded like a helicopter through the ear piece on the phone, the boss asked, "What is that noise?"
"A hello-copper" answered the whispering voice.
"What is going on there?" demanded the boss, now truly apprehensive.
Again, whispering, the child answered, "The search team just landed the hello-copper."

Alarmed, concerned and a little frustrated the boss asked, "What are they searching for?"
Still whispering, the young voice replied with a muffled giggle,
"ME."
Tags: Jokes, Funny, Humor, Family, Fireman, Boss

Learn To Drive

You can have some fun here in learning how to park a car. Don't think that this game has no logic or doesn't help because what you do here will be repeated out in the car park too. Try your skills.

You can download the game here.
Tags: Funny, Skills, Car, Parking

Jesus & Satan

Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was better on the computer. They had been going at it for days, and frankly God was tired of hearing all the bickering. Finally fed up, God said, "THAT'S IT! I have had enough. I am going to set up a test that will run for two hours, and from those results, I will judge who does the better job." So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away.

They moused. They faxed. They e-mailed. They e-mailed with attachments. They downloaded. They did spreadsheets! They wrote reports. They created labels and cards. They created charts and graphs. They did some genealogy reports. They did every job known to man.

Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency, and Satan was faster than hell. Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power went off. Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld. Jesus just sighed.

Finally the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their computers. Satan started searching frantically, screaming:"It's gone! It's all GONE! "I lost everything when the power went out!" Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours of work. Satan observed this and became irate."Wait!" he screamed. "That's not fair! He cheated! How come he has all his work and I don't have any?"

God just shrugged and said, "JESUS SAVES"
Tags: Jokes, Funny, Jesus, Religious, Satan

Living Far Beyond Planet's Means

Humans are stripping nature at an unprecedented rate and will need two planets' worth of natural resources every year by 2050 on current trends — if those resources have not run out by then. "We are in serious ecological overshoot, consuming resources faster than the Earth can replace them," WWF International’s Director General James Leape said. “The consequences of this are predictable and dire." (source: 24 Oct, Reuters)

The Living Planet Index (report can be downloaded here), measures biodiversity, based on trends in more than 3,600 populations of 1,300 vertebrate species around the world. In all, data for 695 terrestrial, 344 freshwater and 274 marine species were analyzed. Terrestrial species declined by 31 per cent, freshwater species by 28 per cent, and marine species by 27 per cent.

- Climate change threatens Latin America and the Caribbean (source: WWF International)
- Climate change, fungal disease threaten frogs (source: Reuters)
- There's more to global warming than heat (source: Science Daily)
- Amazon river 'switched direction' (source: BBC News)
- Scientists raise alarm as man-made deserts spread (source: RadioFreeEurope / RadioLiberty)
- Ozone hole is 'biggest on record' (source: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration)

Kenya will host the second meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP/MOP 2), in conjunction with the twelfth session of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP 12), in Nairobi from 6 to 17 November 2006 (source: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change )
Tags: WWF, WWF International, Weather, Climate, Environment, Global Warming, Ozone, Kyoto Protocol, UNFCCC, Planet, Natural Resources, Climate Change

Firefox's New Browser

Just after blogging on the release of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 on 22 Oct, Mozilla's Firefox has barged into the competition with their latest browser called Firefox 2.

You can download Firefox 2 now.
Tags: Firefox 2, Browser, Mozilla, Internet Explorer 7

Tiny Island States Seek International Help

As the rising Pacific Ocean laps at their doorsteps, tiny Tuvalu (left pic) (a speck of nine islands with 10,000 inhabitants) and Kiribati (a nation of 33 coral atolls straddling the Equator and of 105,00 people) fear becoming environmental refugees. It will be a new type of refugees in the Asia-Pacific region as sea level could rise up to 50 cm (19.7 inches) by 2070.

Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and parts of Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu are considered at greatest risk. A a sea level rise of 30-50 cm would affect hundreds of millions of people across the Asia-Pacific region, slashing economic output, inundating large areas of Bangladesh, India and Vietnam and reducing Kiribati, Fiji and the Maldives to a small fraction of their current land area. A climate change report by Australia's leading scientific research body released two weeks ago found that Micronesia had experienced an annual sea level rise of 21.4 mm since 2001.

Calls have been made to Australia, which is not a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol to cut greenhouse gases, to do more to combat climate change and to be more open to environmental refugees.

Tags: Environmental, Sea Level, Greenhouse, Climate, Kyoto Protocol, Micronesia, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Pacific Ocean, Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, Maldives, Asia Pacific, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Australia